Earthless

How about some rock and roll for your Tuesday? Especially if work is dragging ass.

Earthless – Cherry Red (Groundhogs cover)

You can also listen to Earthless on LastFM and MySpace.

Blue Cheer - Outside Inside

I sometimes put up a Friday Random 10 song list, but this is what I pulled out of my old childhood record collection today-- Blue Cheer's Outside Inside. And it's still in great shape, too.

How great is it to come back to the old home place and see that some of your old records are still where you left them 40 years ago? (I must have been a baby) Most of my good stuff is long gone through various channels but this Blue Cheer album (1968) is enjoying a revival in my house today. Pure rock and roll.

I'm reading about Blue Cheer's new cd, What Doesn't Kill You, and have heard some of it, too.

link | MySpace

Another great Canadian Import

Plants and Animals

Plants and Animals new full length release, Parc Avenue, is out in Canada on February 26, in the US on March 25.

From: Time Out New York - The first full-length from Plants and Animals, Parc Avenue, hits shelves in March and exhibits much of the epic orchestration and surging climaxes used by another Montreal band, the Arcade Fire. Depending on where you stand, it may or may not surprise you that Plants and Animals can do it better… more. --January 2008

LISTEN: »»Fairie Dance

More good songs from the cd are Bye, Bye, Bye, A L'Oree des bois, and Mercy.

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Clapton and Winwood

Break Out Blind Faith, Hendrix at First Supergig - It wasn’t billed as a Blind Faith reunion, but Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton kicked off their three-night stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden Monday night with "Had To Cry Today". And through the course of their twenty-song set they’d cover the entire A-side of 1969’s Blind Faith — the only album by the supergroup — hitting "Can’t Find My Way Home," "Well … All Right" and "Presence of the Lord."

Whoa... Blind Faith is in my top 5 albums of all time so I know this was an extraordinary event. My good friend Frank saw one of the MSG concerts the other night and he is still reeling.

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The Curse Of… The Mars Volta:

The board... was in fact a talking board, an archaic version of today’s Ouija board. Used by occultists for thousands of years to summon and communicate with spirits, talking boards are said to date back to 500 B.C. when Greek philosopher, mathematician and mystic Pythagoras allegedly used them in seances.

"It was sort of like sleepwalking," he says. "It was like something bigger than me was telling me to do it. I just felt drawn there somehow, just like when I went to Israel. I’d never heard of this place, but that’s where I was going. I got there, went out and buried it and didn’t make any conscious effort of figuring out how to get back there ever again. When it was done, I felt like there was nothing inside of me. I cried for days and days and didn’t understand why. For days afterwards, I wasn’t sure I wanted to play music. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything or have anyone around me. It was complete emptiness."

--Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, The Mars Volta

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YEASAYER
These guys are great. Songs 2080 and Sunrise by Brooklyn's Yeasayer are free downloads on their website. Their debut album, All Hour Cymbals, came out a few months ago. I've been working so much lately I'm just now getting around to some of the stuff out there and this album, my friends, is fucking brilliant and it's playing daily at my house.

Good morning, world! Currently listening to: The Fiery Furnaces

Orion Rigel Dommisse – Fake Yer Death

By a Brazilian guitarist with scalloped frets and a lot of distortion pedals. Amazing.

The genesis of The Mars Volta's new album The Bedlam in Goliath is one of the weirdest stories in the history of modern music, a tale of long-buried murder victims and their otherworldly influence, of strife and near collapse, of the long hard fight to push "the record that did not want to be born" out into the world. More...

Wax Simulacra, the first single from The Bedlam in Goliath (coming 1/29/08 from TMV) is currently available for download at iTunes.

Download it Here or Watch the Video and others right here.

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TYLER RAMSEY

Asheville's Tyler Ramsey - now playing with Band of Horses

Sporting a beard that would make most men jealous and a talent that would make most women swoon, Tyler Ramsey is a songwriter who clearly values intricacy, quality songwriting, and atmospheric credibility. A guitarist whose stylistic range varies anywhere from gentle finger-picking treats to bluesy riffs of utmost enjoyability, Ramsey has the ability to capture a broad spectrum of emotions in his highly impressive solo material. Though he will likely be remembered for his solo career, Ramsey also serves as a backing and studio guitarist for a variety of acts located around his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. More recently, he has been recognized as the opening act and part-time guitarist for Band of Horses. Though the highly touted indie-rock trio is based out of Seattle and not Ramsey’s own North Carolina, they are giving Ramsey a well-earned opportunity to try his hand at stardom. With the way that his new album sounds, I would not doubt that he reaches it.

link | x-posted to Around Asheville 11/7/07

Rock God and Country Elite?

"Raising Sand," a duet album by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, is a collection of mostly sad songs.

The album is really a three-way collaboration by an improbable alliance: Mr. Plant, forever known as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin; Ms. Krauss, whose clear voice and deft fiddle style hail from Appalachia; and the producer and guitarist T Bone Burnett, the Texan who is best known for concocting haunted, pensively anachronistic Americana. The album is due October 23rd.

I've heard about this collaboration for awhile, but I still find it hard to wrap my head around it. Such an odd combination, but it's done regularly in the music business and now I can't wait to hear it. Living in Appalachia most of my life I know that Alison Krauss is one flatout singing goddess and one of the most respected talents around. A real singer's singer and as I said in the title, she's country elite. What do you think?

Gone, Gone, Gone mp3

By: Jon Pareles | Photo: Christopher Berkey for The New York Times

Lucky Dube, South African Reggae Star, is Killed in Carjacking

Lucky Dube (born: Ermelo Dube) (pronounced: Doo bay) was one of South Africa's best selling artists and one of its most outspoken performers. He was named Lucky because he was born in poor health, and the doctors thought he would die but he survived.

JOHANNESBURG: A team of gunmen shot and killed Lucky Dube, an international reggae star and one of South Africa's best-known musicians, in an apparent carjacking attempt late Thursday that underscored the continuing peril of violent crime here.

Dube, 43, what shot by three hijackers in Rosettenville, just south of downtown Johannesburg, as he dropped off his teenage son at his brother's house. Another child, a 16-year-old daughter, was in the car at the time, the police said.

The hijackers fled after Dube crashed his car into a tree. He died at the scene.

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Shine - Joni Mitchell
September 25, 2007

Described by Mitchell as "as serious a work as I’ve ever done," "Shine" presents beautiful melodies, dark lyrics and a sparseness that recalls and even progresses beyond some the artist's most seminal recordings. It's her first album of new compositions since 1998.

Much of the lyrical content reflects Mitchell's social and theological consciousness and her longtime plea for the health of the planet.

Lyrics | Pre-order Joni's new album here | Website

I CAN SEE FOR MILES

The Who's Pete Townsend is sharpening his writing skills online for his upcoming autobiography. I'm enjoying the details of his early years. Below is an excerpt.

"On March 20th 1966 an Observer magazine story about The Who phenomenon was published; on its front page was Colin Jones’ unflattering iconic portrait of the band. The story inside was a puff by their buddy John Heilpern for Kit and Chris; we were represented as lightweight braggarts, spendthrifts, vain Dandies and ugly scumbags. My depression deepened. I began to drive to the Scotch of St James nightclub whenever I had free time, to drink Scotch and Coke, and hang out with stars like P.J. Proby, Brian Jones, John Walker and Gary Leeds of the Walker brothers and others. It was not like me at all, but I was pleased to be feted, and built up a friendship with Brian Jones that meant a lot to me. Together we saw one of Stevie Wonder’s first London shows there; Stevie got so excited he fell off the stage."

"May 1966. Car crashes, several. A fight with Keith Moon on stage (he was threatening to leave and form a band with the stupid name of Led Zeppelin, such a stupid name would never have caught on)..."

"Keith Moon had been through something even more powerful in his early relationship with his wife Kim, who had been a professional photographer’s model once pursued all the way down to her home in Bournemouth by Rod Stewart. It was this kind of paranoid, unhinged thinking that spurred me to write I Can See For Miles, one of the best songs I produced in the period... About the sick and viciously jealous intuitions of a cuckolded partner."

Well, here's a poke at you
You're gonna choke on it too
You're gonna lose that smile
Because all the while
I can see for miles and miles

A perfect "fuck you" to a broken love affair.

Pete Townsend

Musicovery - Interactive web radio. Pick the year. Pick the mood. And GO! Musicovery

Instant Karma

John Lennon would have turned 67 in 2007. If alive, he could well be at the forefront of bringing peace to Darfur, where more than half a million have died from violence and disease during four years of rebel discord. So to create awareness of the ongoing conflict, Amnesty International (with permission from Yoko Ono) has mined Lennon's solo work and rounded up nearly two dozen current artists to reinterpret the music, which spans the ex-Beatle's entire post-band catalog (plus a pair from while the Fab Four were still in business).

Release Date: June 2, 2007

Jackson Browne singing, "Oh, My Love" should be amazing. [cringe] who in the world says "Fab Four"? [/cringe]

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Earl Greyhound

Rock critic's E F Hutton, Sasha Frere Jones, once said "Whether or not Earl Greyhound are the Next Big Thing is irrelevant - watching them will convince you that they are." Earl Greyhound



Random 10 Songs

1. Bjork - Earth Intruders
2. Bob Dylan - I Want You
3. Neenah Cherry - Braided Hair
4. Rolling Stones - Memo to Turner
5. Panda Bear - Bros
6. Patti Smith - Gimme Shelter
7. All India Radio - Four Three
8. Rickie Lee Jones - Nobody Knows My Name
9. Joseph Arthur - Diamond Ring (See Notes From The Road
10.Earl Greyhound - S.O.S listen to mp3 or watch the video on You Tube. Power rock trio is like the good stuff we used to listen to.

The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream
One event that gets far less publicity, but that was at the heart of everything that came both before and after it also sees its 40th anniversary this year. The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream took place on April the 29th 1967 and was the UK's first mass-participational all-night psychedelic freakout!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 14-Hour Technicolor Dream, an array of rarely seen 60s films, full-on lightshows, avant-garde theatre and bands both old and new.

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Sly Stone’s Whole New Thing

These days Sly Stone blows people’s minds just by showing up. He stopped traffic at the Grammys last year when he materialized, like some intergalactic apparition, during a tribute performance. Last month, he defied steep odds and appeared at a gig at the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

Sadly, Sly is better known today as one of the ’60s’ more famous flameouts, recalled for his drug busts, reclusiveness, and strings of broken dates. To most, his innovations probably seem remote. But Epic/Legacy has rectified the situation with Sly & the Family Stone: The Collection, a limited-edition seven-CD box collecting the albums that permanently changed the face of music in the ’60s and ’70s. (The label will issue the individual albums, also in limited editions, on Tuesday.)

[More...]

Joseph Arthur

After his most critically acclaimed album to date, Nuclear Daydream, the great singer-songwriter, Joseph Arthur is putting out 2 new CD's this year. The first, Let's Just Be, will arrive on April 17th, 2007. Below, you can check out the first single, Diamond Ring, from the forthcoming album and a favorite of mine, Black Lexus, from last years Nuclear Daydream. "Diamond Ring," has already been described as the best song the Rolling Stones didn't write for Exile On Main Street.

This past weekend Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts began touring North America.

Download MP3:
Joseph Arthur: Diamond Ring (from Let's Just Be)
Joseph Arthur: Black Lexus (from Nuclear Daydream)

Pre-Order Let's Just Be.

Goa Gil - May 19, 2007 - Deerfields (Asheville, NC)

Atlanta Psytrance and Those People Productions welcome Goa Gil back to the Southeastern US, on his second rite of passage as your shamanic guide, for an extended journey into the heart of Primordial Bliss.

Join us in a regional gathering of the tribes as we celebrate as one primal force Goa Gil's sonic transmission of cutting-edge psychedelic trance across Deerfields, a 940-acre private retreat in the sacred Appalachian Mountains. Beneath the skies, on earthen soil where nature abounds, we will dance by ritual fire as the ancients once did -- guided by Goa Gil in Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21st Century through the Trance Dance Experience!

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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

This weekend the little-known 1970 film will get a brand new score performed live by Espers, Philadelphia freak folk musicians — including a harpist, a cellist and an "enigmatic electronicist". Will you even need libation at the after-party?

What about a girl who gets her period and discovers her womanhood 'Alice in Wonderland' style? Not freaky enough for you? The 1970 Czech film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a nudie fairy-tale head trip, an Aquarian stew of Freud, Murnau, Hefner and the Brothers Grimm, complete with lecherous priests, a pubescent heroine and a vampire grandmother.

Valerie and her Week of Wonders
8pm Saturday and 9pm Sunday--March 10 and 11
Anthology Film Archives

Very cool that Espers is doing the music, but besides that, try to catch this old film sometime. You may like it if you enjoy wicked strange cult films.

FRIDAY RANDOM 10
Shuffle 'em up and show us your ten. Come on... give grandma some love.

1. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
2. Band Of Horses - The Funeral
3. Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica
4. Tom Waits - Bottom Of The World
5. Boards of Canada - Skyliner
6. Deerhoof - +81
7. Arcade Fire - Intervention
8. Pearls And Brass - Wake In The Morning
9. Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight
10. Spooky Tooth - Better By You, Better Than Me


as usual-- the old, the new, the in-between

Derailroaded: Inside The Mind Of Larry "Wild Man" Fischer is currently running on Sundance Channel.

Josh Rubin's strangely fascinating documentary parses the life of outsider musician Larry "Wild Man" Fischer. Growing up in the '50s, Fischer was an undiagnosed manic-depressive schizophrenic who, after attacking his mother with a knife, landed in a mental asylum.

Eventually he headed to California in the late '60s, where Frank Zappa discovered him singing his own strange compositions for a dime a song along Sunset Boulevard. In a strangulated growl somewhere between a possessed Tiny Tim and Bobcat Goldthwait, Fischer's music is something of an acquired taste. Zappa championed him and he led a convoluted career appearing on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and landing on the British Top 50 charts.

Derailroaded is interspersed with plenty of talking heads delivering anecdotes, as well as footage of Fischer performing, but ultimately this is a film not about music or fame, but about the ravages of mental illness. Despite many moments of levity—such as a completely bizarre re-enactment of an interview between Dr. Demento and Frank Zappa, done with puppets—it's a devastating portrait of delusion and fathomless despair.

You sure can see the Zappa influence but man, oh man, was the poor guy ever out there.

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Friday Random 10 - Haven't done this in a while. Shuffle 'em up and show us your ten. (If you don't have a 10, an 8 will certainly do.)

1. Take My Hand and Come With Me - Lähtö
2. Wake In The Morning - Pearls and Brass
3. Waiting Phase One - Porcupine Tree
4. Hyper-Ballad - Bjork
5. Rejoicing in the Hands - Vashti Bunyan & Devendra Banhart
6. Universal Soldier - Buffy Saint Marie
7. Winters Love - Animal Collective
8. Pandora - Cocteau Twins
9. Black Wall - Six Organs of Admittance
10.Monkey Man - Rolling Stones

Happy Friday!
Now to go spend some quality time away from my family.

*After a well deserved nap (i was on the rode at 4am) I wake to see I'm rushing the week along and it's only Thursday. Oops. --yawn--

Smith and Tibetan monks at Carnegie Hall Monday night. Photo: AP

Death loomed large at the Philip Glass curated benefit concert for Tibet House U.S. Monday night at Carnegie Hall, when a parade of legendary talents - among them Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Michael Stipe - performed numbers in honor of deceased friends. And as if that weren't depressing enough, when the thrilling succession of reimagined hits and covers stopped, we suddenly realized that all our idols onstage talking about death will die, too. Oh, God.

There were chanting monks, a beautiful, minimalist set from Sigur Rós, and Ben Harper. Debbie Harry happily danced to an acoustic version of "Heart of Glass." And then came Lou Reed, the first to sing about getting old. Ray Davies harkened back to the Kinks' glory days, getting the crowd to sing along with "Lola," "Sunday Afternoon," and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion." He admitted to being foggy about why, exactly, he was there: "This is a great event. I'm not sure of all the details, but the spirit moved me." And then he, too, got wistful about age. "Being in a band at this point in my life is a separation anxiety of the worst sort," he said. "We never know when we'll meet again.

"A very chatty Stipe sang a duet of "Everybody Hurts" with Smith; then he performed "Chorus and the Ring," written in honor of two dead friends, Kurt Cobain and William S. Boroughs, and dedicated to Karin Berg, the A&R rep who'd originally signed R.E.M., the Cars, and Television, who died in 2006. "I've never sung it live before," he said, "other than with my band in my apartment yesterday."

It may have been the best concert we've seen in years, and the night belonged to Smith. She did an amazing cover of "Within You Without You," in honor of George Harrison's birthday on Sunday; she rocked "1959," the rousing antiwar anthem she wrote "addressing the rise of the Beats, the takeover of Tibet by the Chinese, and the beautiful Chevy Impala"; she and Glass gave an incredible tribute to departed friend Alan Ginsberg. Back in 1995, a few months after her husband's death, Smith explained, Ginsberg had brought Smith out of her seclusion to perform at a Tibet House benefit. Every year since Ginsberg's death, Smith and Glass have performed his poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra." Monday night it rose on a slow crescendo till Smith intoned in strident staccato, "I declare the end of the war!"

If only it were that easy. —Jada Yuan

Stipe sang the R.E.M. oddities "New Test Leper," and "Chorus and the Ring," which he said developed after conversations he had with the late beat poet William S. Burroughs. The latter song has never been performed by R.E.M., according to Stipe.

All of my favorite people were there --must have been really great. Let's see if I can find a podcast or mp3 link of the music.

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Tai Chi master taught Lou some moves; Lou reciprocated when the master puts out a DVD and then writer attempts an interview.

"Is Lou Reed ('60s musician and heroin icon Lou Reed, he writes) even still alive?" was my first thought. "And what the hell is he doing being fit? Shouldn't he have, like, IVs of synthetic opiates trailing him on rolling cradles?"

Some junior tool is aghast that Lou Reed has the audacity to be in good physical shape. So what if he geezed a bit in his younger days. Do young disgressions preclude a fit lifestyle? And why must some media refer to Lou and heroin as if they're mutually exclusive of one another? He's newsworthy for being a musician, not for something he did 40 years ago. Damn.

He had a chance to write something new and fresh about Lou Reed and he blew it.

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NEW JEFF BECK CD

"The Jeff Beck "Official Bootleg USA '06" was originally produced to sell at Jeff's summer shows in America in 2006 as part of the tour merchandise. However the interest in the CD has gone beyond all expectations. We’d rather people had an original copy than were forced to buy a bootleg version or pay inflated prices on eBay. Therefore, due to the overwhelming demand and huge number of requests we’ve had from people trying to get their hands on a copy, we are going to get another batch of CDs manufactured which we hope to have available in the coming weeks."

Feb 6, 2007 - They're ready!

The CD will be exclusively available from the online store at: Jeff Beck Official Store

Tracks featured are:

Bolero
Stratus
You Never Know
‘Cause We’ve Ended
Behind The Veil
Two Rivers
Star Cycle
Big Block
Nadia
Angels
Scatterbrain
Led Boots
Pork Pie/Brush
Rainbow

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(Frank, I'll bet you already have one.)

2 Upcoming Films With Links To The 60s

Neal Cassady - From the bars of Denver to the Steel Mills of Utah to the avant-garde parties of Manhattan, across a nation whose heart is calling for a role-model, a leader, a hero... Neal Cassady's on the road again, and all his old pals are there with him--Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters. They're searching for Neal's long-lost father, who holds the key to the great unwritten American novel. But in the end it's Neal alone, and in the rear-view fast-approaching are cops, groupies and the dark chimera of his own vanity.

Release Date: To Be Announced
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Across The Universe - A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.

I don't know if I would like this one or not. I've read that it's more like a series of punctuated scenes and characters each represented by a Beatles song - 32 in all. Too much of a musical for me...maybe it has more of a story.

Now the Neal Cassady film sounds promising because the people are interesting. Cassady, Kesey, Kerouac, the the Pranksters, of whom I thought were the end-all and be-all of the universe when I was growing up.

Release Date: September 28, 2007.
View trailer
Link

I enjoy LD Beghtol's column at the Village Voice and his podcast which is a weekly ramble through the obscurer and experimental corners of music.

LD's High Bias' latest column and podcast Pre-VD Love Bomb, is about Diamanda Galás Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14 @ The Knitting Factory.

Morrison climate warning strikes global note

A secret poem recorded by the legendary singer Jim Morrison shortly before he died is to be released as a song to raise awareness of climate change. Lyrics recorded by the former Doors frontman in Paris in 1971, have been put to music by rock stars for the Global Cool campaign and will be released as a single in April.

Morrison's recording of the poem - called Woman in the Window - has been released by Morrison's estate and put to music by stars including New Order and Perry Farrell, the former singer with LA band Jane's Addiction.

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RADICAL LIVING PAPERS
A history of the free, alternative, counter-culture and underground press, 1965-75
Gavin Brown's enterprise at PASSERBY
February 2 - March 7, 2007

Covering politics, revolutions, evolutions of the planets, freak-outs, love-ins, support of green politics, gay liberation, power to the people, the peace parties, protests, the Panthers, peyote, LSD, pot, fiction, music, poetry, prose, prayers and more. Publications include: Actuel, Avatar, Berkeley Barb, Berkeley Tribe, Black Panther Papers, Digger Papers, Door, East Village Other [EVO], The Fifth Estate, Freep, Grabuge, Hobo-Québec, International Times [it], Los Angeles Free Press, The Oracle, The Organ, Other Scenes, OZ, Rat, The Realist, Re Nudo, Rolling Stone, The Seed, Ann Arbor Sun....more.

GBE@Passerby

Blogged with Flock
(from the inbox via: arthur)

W A R/D A N C E

Across the country, Ugandan children are getting ready for the biggest event of the year: the annual Kampala Music Festival. Fifty-six schools will compete, but only one will go home the champion. No one expects it to be Patongo ? schools in the middle of refugee camps don?t win awards.

But when the music starts, expressions shift. After a lifetime of trauma, this year Patongo Primary School students have something magical to anticipate. For the first time, they have qualifed to compete in Kampala?s national festival. The capital city may as well be on another planet to these kids. Most have never left the camp, but they dream about Kampala?s towering buildings, plentiful soda and soldier-free streets. Unlike the wealthier schools from the south, Patongo?s students scrap for school uniforms and instruments. Despite the odds, the children endlessly practice their performances, filling the sweltering one room schoolhouse with dust. They are driven by heart, talent and, for some, the need to rebuild lives shattered by the L.R.A.. After months of practicing, it all builds to the big night in Kampala. If their bus can safely make it through rebel territory, they?ll take the stage and give it their all. Win or lose, these children will show what true heart can achieve. (via: World Vision)

Documentaries have richly peppered the film landscape quite generously of late and War/Dance is one beautiful and tender documentary showing at Sundance this week.

Sunday January the 14th is the 40th anniversary of Golden Gate Park's Human Be-In.

"Close your eyes, man, and think of this: ten thousand people, most of them young, half of them stoned, in Golden Gate Park listening to music, to poetry, celebrating life, celebrating being human. Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll. A Human Be-In."

"A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In," announced on the cover of the new issue of the San Francisco Oracle, would feature Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Richard (Ram Dass) Alpert, Dick Gregory, Lenore Kandel, Jerry Ruben, and All SF Rock Bands January 14, 1967, 1 to 5 pm in Golden Gate Park 30,000 people showed up. The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and others called the tune. Leary, in his first San Francisco appearance, uttered the sound bite of the decade: "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out."

Photo credit: Larry Keenan

READ MORE »

James Brown dead at 73

My memory of James Brown comes from a 1969 concert in a small southern town high school gym with my friend Debbie and being the only white people in the audience.

We all knew he was a great singer and dancer, but being such a showman made seeing him live so special. When calling out "Maseo, come blow your horn" and "Watch me while I do the James Brown" while he did his signature slide dance with those little feet moving like lightning. He came to the stage with his cape on and someone takes it off. By the end, it's draped on his shoulders again, he's drenched in sweat and he's ushered off stage only to return for an encore as he throws the cape to the floor.

His singles played at every party in the mid 60s. His "Live At The Apollo" was my favorite album and it may still be here someplace. I know we still have some old 45s of his around here.

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